News & Events

New England Research Institutes, Inc., Selected as Clinical Research Partner for Pilot Study of Spinal Muscular Atrophy in Children

Watertown, Mass – October 30, 2008 – New England Research Institutes, Inc. (NERI), is providing customized clinical research services to the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the development of a potential treatment for SMA. The goal of the pilot study is to identify biomarkers (biological substances) that can be used as objective measures of SMA disease severity.The discovery of such measures may help to assess drug effectiveness and shorten treatment time in clinical trials.

NERI has broad responsibility for execution of this landmark SMA clinical trial being conducted at 18 research sites throughout the United States and Canada. SMA is a genetic, motor neuron disease characterized by the weakening of skeletal muscles. It’s caused by the progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spine and leads to muscular deterioration over time.

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Watertown, Massachusetts – New England Research Institutes, Inc. (NERI), collaborated with top academic medical centers, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., to conduct a multi-year hepatitis C clinical trial. Findings from the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-Term Treatment Against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) study are reported in the Dec. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study results show that treating patients with chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease with long-term low-dose pegylated interferon “maintenance” therapy significantly decreased liver enzymes, viral levels and liver inflammation. However, pegylated interferon did not slow or prevent the progression of serious liver disease.

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